At 10:05 PM 7/10/97 -0700, Tim May wrote:

A thoughtful response from Peter Swire.

Thanks kindly.

A third possibility, and one which deserves a longer essay by someone, is the role quasi-private organizations play. To cut to the chase, organizations like the American Bar Association, American Medical Association, etc.

These "guilds" are an interesting case of self-policing where there is no option for opting out. (I don't believe it is possible to practice law or medicine without approval/licensing from these kinds of organizations/guilds.)

You might check out my article on "Markets, Self-Regulation, and Government Enforcement in the Protection of Personal Information." Among other topics, I talk about self-regulation by licensing organizations. The piece is posted at my web site. It is also the lead chapter in a recent report by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on "Self-Regulation and Privacy in the Information Age", on their web site at http://www.ntia.doc.gov. Peter Prof. Peter Swire Ohio State University College of Law mailto:swire.1@osu.edu web: http://www.osu.edu/units/law/swire.htm (in early stages of construction)